Texas Encounters

Before I launch into an update on my trip to Sedona, I want to announce some good news. Artist Katherine Tyrell, who runs the popular blog, "Making a Mark" gives out a series of awards at year's end to painters who blog. I'm pleased that she has given the 2008 "Painting Plein Air Plus Prize" to me, an award which I share with Florida artist Linda Blondheim. For full details, please visit this link. Thank you, Katherine!

As of this evening, Trina and I have made it safely to Show Low, Arizona, on our way to Sedona. On the way here, we stopped in Texas to visit with my mentor, Ann Templeton, who recently moved from New Mexico to a small town near Austin. If you don't know Ann, she's a wonderful teacher who's been at it for over 30 years. I wrote her first book, a retrospective entitled The Art of Ann Templeton: A Step Beyond. Her latest book, which is an instructional book, is called Color and Beyond and came out this year. I didn't write it, but I do recommend it as a great companion volume. She's also teaching a mentoring workshop next August for me in Maine. (See www.anntempleton2009.com for more.)

Ann Templeton

While visiting Ann, she called up some old friends who came to visit. Bobbie Kilpatrick  co-ran an art school with Ann for many years. Vicki McMurry , whom I met at my first Sedona Plein Air Festival, authored Mastering Color: The Essentials of Color for North Light Books. Betty Rhoades  once owned two art galleries in Dallas. Each of these is an excellent painter, and at the end, I'll show some of their art.

We sat all afternoon at Ann's dining table, drinking tea and then wine, talking about the art business. It's rare when artists, who are mostly solitary creatures, can sit and talk at leisure in this way. Our chat ran all the way from the use of white when painting with oils to the future of bricks-and-mortar galleries. We didn't solve all the world's problems, but we joined in a camaraderie that made all those problems bearable.

Bobbie Kilpatrick

Vicki McMurry

Betty Rhoades